Pate, Vodka and IBS

Well they’re not really related I just thought I’d bunch them together for the sake of this post. But I do suffer with IBS and have an issue with insoluble fibre, you know wholegrains. So I wanted to be able to include more of the good soluble fibre (beans) into my diet on a regular basis and came up with this idea – cannellini bean and mushroom pate. I sauted mushrooms in a pan and mixed in some previously cooked cannellini beans, added seasoning and small amount of crumbled vegetable stock.

Once mixed I took half the portion out of the pan into my processor and blitzed them into a smooth paste. I added some curry powder to the remaining half and blitzed that too. Then spooned an equal amount into little pots and kept one pot for the fridge and toast in the morning and the other pots for the freezer.

Home made Gooseberry Vodka

We took just about 600gms of freshly picked, cleaned and sliced gooseberries and put them in a large kilner jar, added about 300gms of sugar and topped up with vodka. Need to leave a 3 cm gap at the top so we didn’t use up a whole 1ltr of vodka. Give this a good shake and then shake daily until all the sugar has dissolved, then leave to mature until Christmas shaking occasionally. Apparently the flavour improves if left longer.